This is a study of Jesus going to prepare a place for us. The Father's house has many mansions and Jesus will prepare them for His own.

1. JESUS WAS GOING TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR US
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 14:2 2
My Father's house has many rooms;if that
were not so, would I have told you that I am going
there to prepare a place for you?
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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Work Of The Ascended Jesus
John 14:2, 3
D. Young And yet manifestly it is only part of the work. So much is spoken of as needed to be
spoken of here. Jesus tells us that which will best blend with other things that have to be said at
the time. Who can imagine, who can describe, anything like the total of what Jesus has gone
from earthly scenes to do?
I. CONSIDER THE OCCUPATIONS OF THOSE WHO WERE LEFT. Just one word gives the
suggestion that these were in the mind of Jesus as he spoke, and that is the word "mansions." The
settled life is thought of rather than the wandering one. Jesus knew full well what a wandering
life his disciples would have, going into strange and distant countries. They would have to travel
as he himself had never traveled. The more they apprehended the work to which they had been
called, the more they would feel bound to go from land to land, preaching the gospel while life
lasted. To men thus constantly on the move, the promise of a true resting-place was just the
promise they needed.
II. THE FUTURE COMPANIONSHIP OF JESUS AND HIS PEOPLE. To those who have
come into the real knowledge and service of Jesus nothing less than such a companionship will
make happiness; and nothing more is needed. Jesus needed not to have a place in glory prepared
for him; he had but to resume his old station, and be with his Father as he had been before. This
is the great element of happiness on earth - not so much where we are as with whom we are. The
most beautiful scenes, the most luxurious surroundings, count as nothing compared with true
harmony in the human beings who are around us. And just so it must be in the anticipations of a
future state. While Jesus was in the flesh, his presence with his disciples was the chief element in

2. their happiness; and as they looked forward to the future, this was the main thing desired, that
they should be with Jesus. As Paul puts it, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord."
III. THE PREPARATION OF A COMMON HOPE. Is this to be taken as a real preparation, or is
it only a way of speaking, to impress the promise of reunion more deeply? Is there now some
actual work of the glorified Jesus going on which amounts to a necessary preparation for his
glorified people? Surely it must be so. We are not to go into another state, as pioneers, to cut our
own way. We are not as the Pilgrim Fathers, who had to make their own houses, and live as best
they could till then. It is clear that a kindly Providence made the earth ready for the children of
men, storing up abundance for all our temporal need; and in like manner Jesus is making heaven
ready. Earth was made ready for Jesus to come down and live in it, and for him and his disciples
to live together in. And when his disciples ascend to a higher state, all things will be ready then. -
Y.
Biblical Illustrator
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
John 14:18, 19
Not left comfortless
J. Vaughan, M. A.The word "comfortless" means "bereft." We have adopted the Greek word,
and have gradually limited it to the severest kind of bereavement — orphanhood. But the
promise, starting from one kind of bereavement, enlarges itself, and takes in all who from any
cause want comfort. God does not say that you shall never be comfortless, but on the contrary,
He implies that you shall be so. Nobody, however saintly, could say he was never comfortless,
but he can say, "I was not left comfortless." And the length of the comfortless period depends
upon the faith we have in Christ's coming to us.
I. Let us confine our view to one kind of sorrow — BEREAVEMENT, This has in it —
1. Change. One you loved, and with whom you were almost hourly in converse, has passed
away. Everything is changed; nothing looks to us as it used to look in the sunshine, which seems
as if it never would come back again. It is wonderful how one face gone, one voice silent, alters
the whole world.
2. Separation. Then a gulf opens, which, however persons may talk about it, is then very wide.
The grave is a wall of adamant to you — they may be conscious of no distance, but to you, oh,
how very far off!
3. Loneliness. No wonder that the silence is oppressive. No matter how many you may have
around you, or how kind, you are thrown hack into your own thoughts which circle about one,
and that one is gone, and it is a perfect solitude.

3. 4. Fear: a painful apprehension of what the future is going to be. "How shall I live on? What
shall I do without that love, that counsel?"
II. FOR THESE FOUR WRETCHEDNESSES, CHRIST IS THE ONLY ANTIDOTE — "I will
come to you." And mark, it is His presence, not His work, His Cross, His final Advent, but His
living presence now.
1. With Him there is no shadow of a turning. It is the same voice which faith hears, and the same
face which faith sees now, which you heard and saw in years long gone by. "I will never leave
you." And the awful change which has passed over everything else only makes it stand out more
comfortingly — His impossibility of change.
2. And with that felt, present, unchangeable Christ, both worlds are one. The Church in heaven
and the Church on earth are the members, and all meet in that one Head, and in Him they are
here. Where then is loneliness? He is a Brother by me, to whom I can tell everything, and He will
answer me. I seem speaking to them because they are holding the very same converse within the
veil.
3. The solitude of the soul, where He is, becomes peopled with the whole host of heaven. There
is no sense of being alone when we realize that we are alone with Jesus.
4. And so the fear flies away. For what Christ is now, He will be always. And that presence is the
pledge of a reunion. A little while, and it will be He, and they, and I, and we shall be together
forever.Conclusion:
1. Read a particular emphasis on the "I," that great word which God is so fond of. Whatever it be
to you now, this gay world will leave you utterly "comfortless." Those whom today you are most
fondly cherishing, and the thought of whose death you dare not admit to your own heart — if
you have none but them, and no Christ in them, you will wake up some morning to such a cold
vacancy, for that one will have gone, and will have left you "comfortless." Friends will come
with their emptinesses, and they will go, and you will be as comfortless as when they came. Only
He who could say, "I will come to you" as none other comes, as He came to Martha and Mary at
Bethany; only He can say, "I will not leave you comfortless."
2. Read another emphasis on that "you." "I," Jesus seems to say, "I was left comfortless, but I
will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
3. Of all the bereaved in the whole world, there is none so bereft as that man of whatever happy
circle he may be, who cannot look up to heaven, and say, "My Father." That man is an orphan
indeed.
4. There is another. He has known what it is to feel God His Father, but it is gone Do you say, "It
is I?" Then I am sure that at this moment Jesus is saying it to you — "I will not leave you an
orphan," etc. For if there be a thing on the whole earth which Jesus will not have it is an
orphaned heart.
(J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Our Comforter
W. Birch.I. MAN NEEDS A COMFORTER. I do not now speak of men in the bulk, but in units.
Wars, pestilences, strikes, and social evils trouble men, but besides these, each man in himself
has trouble which none but God can soothe. Perhaps friendless poverty is the sorest trouble of
existence. Returning along the road from Warrington, I heard a groan which made my heart

4. shudder. Stooping to the hedge, I saw a woman and a little child in great distress. She was from
Liverpool; her husband had come to Manchester seeking for work and had written saying he had
been taken ill, and that as he could send no money, she must trust in God. Without a penny in her
pocket, love for her husband gave her strength to walk to Manchester with her child in her arms.
She inquired at his lodgings, but found he had been taken to the hospital. She then by asking at
every corner arrived at the Manchester workhouse, and found that her husband was dead, and his
remains had been placed in the grave the day before. Footsore, hungry, and friendless, she was
sent away, and pawned her shawl to keep from dying in the street. Then she dragged herself to
the road near Irlam and lay down under a hedge to groan and to die. But in the cottage of a poor
farm labourer she found help and sympathy which caused her to live. Did God not hear, and
hearing, did He not provide comfort?
II. MEN VERY OFTEN SEEK ARTIFICIAL COMFORTERS. After the great deluge, men built
the tower of Babel, hoping by that means to receive comfort in any similar calamity. And in
these days men are building towers which they hope will save them from the deluge of trouble.
Many people think that if they build up a tower of riches they will be happy. But the rich man is
no happier than the poor one. I was once asked to visit a man who was said to be dying. Standing
at his bedside and holding his hand in mine, I said, "Have you the joy of knowing that your sins
are forgiven?" The man looked and replied, "Joy! joy! joy!" Taking his hand from mine he
pushed it under the pillow and bringing out a bottle of brandy he held it with his trembling hand,
saying, "This is my joy." Poor, miserable, drunkard! Most people before they become drunkards
have had some sickness of mind or body preying upon them; but do not fly from your great
trouble to drink.
III. OUR FATHER HAS PROVIDED A COMFORTER FOR EVERY MAN. If you seek in the
history of the past, what man would you select to be your comforter? I ask the philosophers if
they would ask for Socrates above all others? I ask the deists if they would ask for Thomas Paine
or Voltaire? Or would you ask for John Bunyan, or for Wesley or Whitefield? If you knew none
better you might. Take the worst man in the world, or an unbeliever, and ask him, "If you were to
select out of all men one who should be your bosom friend until you die, upon whom would you
fix?" If he told his heart's truth, he would reply, "Jesus."
1. Jesus our Comforter is with us. My mother died in giving me life, and, of course, I have not
the slightest remembrance of her. The only relic I had was a little piece of her silk dress, and this
I preserved as my dearest treasure. Tossed about, and yearning for a love which was not to be
had, I used to sit alone for hours, and long for, and pray to my mother. You may call it an insane
fancy, but to me it was real and powerful and comforting. And I owe the success of my boyhood
to the consciousness of her beloved presence. In the same way, Jesus communes with us. Jesus in
Spirit is with you.
2. He comforts —(1) By showing that our Father loves us. Deep down in every human heart
there is the instinct that God loves men. In great calamity men always cry to God.(2) By pointing
us to the Cross. Look to the Cross of Jesus, and see the remedy which shall in time save all the
world.(3) By inspiring us with hope. When a man is cast out of society, and swears in is despair,
"I will now do all the evil I can and spite them," if a friend tap him on the shoulder, saying,
"Brother, why despair of yourself? Come with me, and I will hold on to you until you are a better
man," why, such language would be an inspiration! Jesus is the friend who does this to the
despairing souls of men.(4) When we are heavily burdened. Paul was burdened. He had a "thorn
in the flesh." But did God take it away? No; but He gave him grace to bear it. So Jesus comforts

5. us when we are burdened by giving us strength to bear it.(5) He comforts us too by showing us
God's purpose. He teaches us that all things work together for good.
(W. Birch.)
Soul orphanhood
D. Thomas, D. D.I. CONSISTS IN MORAL SEPARATION FROM GOD.
1. Not local, for God is everywhere, and no spirit can flee from His presence.
2. Not physical; for in God we live and move, etc.
3. But, morally, the unregenerate are ever distant from Him — alienated in sympathy, purpose
and pursuit: "without God." The ungodly world is a world of orphans, without a father's
fellowship and guidance.
II. IS AN EVIL OF STUPENDOUS MAGNITUDE.
1. Orphanism, so far as human parentage is concerned, is a calamity, but this is a crime. The soul
has broken away from its Father, not its Father from it.
2. Orphanism in the one case may have its loss supplied, but not in the other. Thank God, society
in this age has loving hearts, and good homes for orphans. But nothing on earth can take the
place of God in relation to a soul: such a soul is benighted, perishing, lost.
III. IS REMOVED BY THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST. He brings the soul into a loving, blessed
fellowship with God. The deep cry of humanity is the cry of an orphan for the Father. The
response is the advent of Christ.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The absent present Christ
A. Maclaren, D. D.I. THE ABSENT CHRIST IS THE PRESENT CHRIST. "Orphans" is rather
an unusual form in which to represent the relation between our Lord and His disciples. And so,
possibly, our versions are accurate in giving the general idea of desolation. But, still, it is to be
remembered that this whole conservation begins with "Little children"; and they would be like
fatherless and motherless children in a cold world. And what is to hinder that? One thing only. "I
come to you." Now, what is this "coming"? Our Lord says, not "I will," as a future, but "I come,"
or, "I am coming," as an immediately impending, or present, thing. There can be no reference to
the final coming, because it would follow, that, until that period, all that love Him here are to
wander about as orphans; and that can never be.
1. We have here a coming which is but the reverse side of His bodily absence. This is the heart of
the consolation that, howsoever the "foolish senses" may have to speak of an absent Christ, we
may rejoice in the certainty that He is with all those that love Him, and all the more because of
the withdrawal of the earthly manifestation Which has served its purpose. Note the manifest
implication of absolute Divinity. "I come." "I am present with every single heart." That is
equivalent to Omnipresence. I cannot but think that the average Christian life of this day
woefully fails in the realization of this great truth, that we are never alone, but have Jesus Christ
with each of us more closely, and with more Omnipotence of influence than they had who were
nearest Him upon earth. If we really believed this, how all burdens and cares would be lightened,
how all perplexities would begin to smooth themselves out, and how sorrows and joys and

6. everything would be changed in their aspect. A present Christ is the Strength, the Righteousness,
the Peace, the Joy, the Life of every Christian soul.
2. This coming of our Lord is identified with that of His Divine Spirit. He has been speaking of
sending that "other Comforter," who is no gift wafted to us as from the other side of a gulf; but
by reason of the unity of the Godhead, Christ and the Spirit whom He sends are, though separate,
so indissolubly united that where the Spirit is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the
Spirit. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
3. This present Christ is the only Remedy for the orphanhood of the world. We can understand
how forlorn and terrified the disciples were, when they looked forward to the things that must
come to them, without His presence. Therefore He cheers them with this assurance.(1) And the
promise was fulfilled. How did that dispirited group ever pluck up courage to hold together after
the Crucifixion at all? Why was it that they did not follow the example of John's disciples, and
dissolve and disappear, and say, "The game is up." If it had not been that He came to them,
Christianity would have been one more of the abortive sects forgotten in Judaism. But, as it is,
the whole of the New Testament after Pentecost is aflame with the consciousness of a present
Christ working amongst His people.(2) The same conviction you and I must have, if the world is
not to be a desert and a dreary place for us. If you take away Christ the elder Brother, who alone
reveals the Father, we are all orphans, who look up into an empty heaven and see nothing there.
And is not life a desolation without Him? Hollow joys, roses whose thorns last long after the
petals have dropped, real sorrow, shows and shams, bitternesses and disappointments — are not
these our life, in so far as Christ has been driven out of it?
II. THE UNSEEN CHRIST IS A SEEN CHRIST.
1. That "yet a little while" covers the whole space up to His ascension: and if there be any
reference to the forty clays, during which, literally, the world "saw Him no more," but "the
apostles saw Him," that reference is only secondary. These transitory appearances are not
sufficient to bear the weight of so great a promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence
of the coming, is as continuous and permanent as the coming. It is clear, too, that the word "see"
is employed in two different senses. In the former it refers only to bodily, in the latter to spiritual
perception. For a few short hours still, the ungodly mass of men were to have that outward vision
which they had used so badly, that "they seeing saw not." It was to cease, and they who loved
Him would not miss it when it did. They, too, had but dimly seen Him while He stood by them;
they would gaze on Him with truer insight when He was present though absent. So this is what
every Christian life may and should be — the continual sight of a continually present Christ.
2. Faith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of the senses.(1) It is more direct.
My eye does not touch what I look at. Gulfs of millions of miles lie between me and it. But my
faith is not only eye, but hand, and not only beholds but grasps.(2) It is far more clear. Senses
may deceive; my faith, built upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its information is far more certain,
more valid. So that there is no need for men to say, "Oh! if we had only seen Him with our
eyes!" You would very likely not have known Him if you had. There is no reason for thinking
that the Church has retrograded in its privileges because it has to love instead of beholding, and
to believe instead of touching. Sense disturbs, faith alone beholds.(3) "The world seeth Me no
more." Why? Because it is a world. "Ye see Me." Why Because, and in the measure, in which
you have "turned away your eyes from seeing vanity." If you want the eye of the soul to be
opened, you must shut the eye of sense. And the more we turn away from looking at the dazzling
lies which befool and bewilder us, the more shall we see Him whom to see is to live forever.

7. III. THE PRESENT AND SEEN CHRIST IS LIFE AND LIFE GIVING. Because He comes,
His life passes into the hearts of the men to whom He comes, and who gaze upon Him.
1. Mark the majestic "I live" — the timeless present tense, which expresses unbroken, undying
and Divine life. It is all but a quotation of the name "Jehovah." The depth and sweep of its
meaning are given to us by this Apostle, "the living One," who lived whilst He died, and having
died "is alive for evermore."
2. And this Christ is Lifegiver to all that love Him and trust Him.(1) We live because He lives. In
all senses the life of man is derived from the Christ who is the Agent of creation, and is also the
one means by whom any of us can ever hope to live the better life that consists in union to
God.(2) We shall live as long as He lives, and His being is the guarantee of the immortal being
of all who love Him. Anything is possible, rather than that a soul which has drawn a spiritual life
from Christ should ever be rent apart from Him by such a miserable and external trifle as the
mere dissolution of the bodily frame. As long as Christ lives your life is secure. If the Head has
life the members cannot see corruption. The Church chose for one of its ancient emblems of the
Saviour the pelican, which fed its young, according to the fable, with the blood from its own
breast. So Christ vitalizes us. He in us is our life.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christians not forgotten by Christ
Christian World.A tragic story comes from Senegal. Four natives who had been sent to guard the
French flag on a newly acquired barren island in that region were left without provisions, and
died of starvation. They had a supply of food to last three months, but the governor had entirely
forgotten to send relief to the guardians of the standard on the lonely rock.
(Christian World.)
Christ in heaven helps His disciples
J. Gurnall.Suppose a king's son should get out of a besieged prison and leave his wife and
children behind, whom he loves as his own soul; would the prince, when arrived at his father's
palace, please and delight himself with the splendour of the court, and forget his family in
distress; No; but having their cries and groans always in his ears, he should come post to his
father, and entreat him, as ever he loved him, that he would send all the forces of his kingdom
and raise the siege, and save his dear relations from perishing; nor will Christ, though gone up
from the world and ascended into His glory, forget His children for a moment that are left behind
Him.
(J. Gurnall.)
Comfort for the bereavedOn every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins with the
words, He remains. This applies to God, and gives sweet comfort to the bereaved. Friends may
die, fortune fly away, but God endures. He remains.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me.
Seeing the living Christ
Weekly Pulpit.Came in the flesh — that is the outward, material fact. He is here in the Spirit —
that is the inward, spiritual reality.
I. CHRIST'S LITTLE WHILE.

8. 1. His visible appearance on earth was only for a "little while." Yet how much has been crowded
into it. Example; teaching; miracle; suffering. All this helps us to understand His mission, and
especially to realize to ourselves His abiding spiritual presence. He is still with us, the very
Christ that He was.
2. When Jesus spoke these words there was but a very "little while" left. Only the death scene,
and the forty days in the Resurrection body. But these also help us to realize the spiritual
presence of Christ, as we can know it; especially do we get suggestions from the Resurrection
time.
II. THE WORLD'S BLINDNESS. What report can the "world" give of Christ? "He was a good
Man, an original Teacher, But He offended the religion and society leaders of His day, and they
secured His crucifixion." The world testifies that He was dead and buried; but the world resists
the bare ideas of His Resurrection or spiritual life. How little the world knows, or can conceive,
of the "coming, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost." So Christ is lost as an actual power in life.
III. THE DISCIPLES' VISION. "Ye see Me." That is, "Ye do constantly see Me." If they had
seen Christ truly while He was here on earth, then they would find they never lost the sight of
Him. Because, during His earthly life, His real presence with the disciples had been presence to
heart, not to eye.
1. Christ never goes out of disciples' thought or heart.
2. Christ never ceases to be the disciple's Ruler and Referee.
3. The honour of Christ never ceases to be the disciple's sole aim.
4. The strength of Christ never ceases to be the soul's victory. The joy of Christian life depends
on the clearness of our vision of this ever-present Christ.
(Weekly Pulpit.)
Because I live, ye shall live also.
The Lord of Life
Canon Liddon.This saying is only to be fully understood in the light of the Resurrection and
Ascension. Christ has taken the measure of death; death was to be no real interruption of His
ever-continuing life. Already He sees the Resurrection beyond. He treats Death as an already
vanquished enemy. Observe:
I. WHAT OUR LORD'S WORDS DO NOT MEAN. They do not mean that the immortality of
the soul of man is dependent upon the work or life of Christ. Man is an immortal being, just as he
is a thinking and feeling being by the original terms of his nature. Any of us may see who will
consider how generally unlike the spirit or soul of man is to any merely material creature.
1. The soul of man knows itself to be capable of continuous development. However vigorous a
tree or an animal may be, it soon reaches a point at which it can grow no longer. Its vital force is
exhausted; it can do no more. With the soul, whether as a thinking or feeling power, we can
never say that it has exhausted itself. When a man of science has made a great discovery, or a
man of letters has written a great book, or a statesman has carried a series of great measures we
cannot say — "He has done his all." Undoubtedly, as the body moves towards decay it inflicts
something of its weakness upon its spiritual companion. But the soul constantly resists, asserting
its own separate and vigorous existence. The mind knows that each new effort, instead of
exhausting its powers, enlarges them, and that if only the physical conditions necessary to

9. continued exertion are not withdrawn, it will go on continuously making larger and nobler
acquirements. So too with the heart, the conscience, the sense of duty. One noble act suggests
another: one great sacrifice for truth or duty prompts another. "Be not weary in well-doing" is the
language of the Eternal Wisdom to the human will.
2. The spirit is conscious of and values its own existence. This is not the case with any material
living forms, however lofty or beautiful. The most magnificent tree only gives enjoyment to
other beings; it never understands that itself exists; it is not conscious of losing anything when it
is cut down. An animal feels pleasure and pain, but it feels each sensation as it comes; it never
puts them together, or takes the measure of its own life, and looks on it as a whole. The animal
lives wholly in the present, practically it has no past, nor does it look forward. How different
with the conscious, self-measuring spirit of man! Man's spirit lives more in the past and in the
future than in the present, exactly in the degree in which it makes the most of itself. And the
more the spirit makes of its powers and resources, the more earnestly does it desire prolonged
existence. Thus, the best of the heathens longed to exist after death, that they might continue to
make progress in all such good as they had begun in this life, in high thoughts and in excellent
resolves. And with these longings they believed that they would then exist after all when this life
was over. The longing was itself a sort of proof that its object was real; for how was its existence
to be explained if all enterprise was to be abruptly broken off by the shock of death?
3. Unless a spiritual being is immortal, such a being counts for less in the universe than mere
inert matter. For matter has a kind of immortality. Within the range of our experience, no matter
ceases to exist; it only takes new shapes, first in one being, and then in another. It is possible that
the destruction of the world at the Last Day will be only a re-arrangement of the sum total of
matter which now makes up the visible universe. If man's spirit naturally perishes, the higher part
of his nature therefore is much worse off than the chemical ingredients of his body. For man's
spirit cannot be resolved like his body, into form and material; the former perishing while the
latter survives. Man's spirit either exists in its completeness, or it ceases to exist. Each man is
himself: he can become no other. His memory, his affections, his way of thinking and feeling,
are all his own: they are not transferable. If they perish, they perish altogether. And therefore it is
a reasonable and very strong presumption that spirit is not, in fact, placed at such disadvantage,
and that, if matter survives the dissolution of organic forms, much more must spirit survive the
dissolution of the material forms with which it has been associated. These are the kind of
considerations by which thoughtful men, living without the light of revelation, might be led to
see the reasonableness, the very high probability of a future life. This teaching of nature is
presupposed by Christianity, and it is no true service to our Master to make light of it. At the
same time, it is true that, outside the Jewish revelation, immortality was not treated by any large
number of men as anything like a certainty. Jesus Christ assumed it as certain in all that He said
with reference to the future life. And it is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — which has in this, as
in so many other ways, opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. What has been may be.
And thus the Christian faith has brought "immortality to light." And what a solemn fact is this
immortality of ours! A hundred years hence no one of us will be still in the body: we shall have
passed to another sphere of being. But if the imagination can take in these vast tracts of time, ten
millions years hence we shall still exist, each one with his memory, will, and conscious contact,
separate from all other beings in our eternal resting place.
II. WHAT CHRIST'S WORDS DO MEAN. Clearly something is meant by "Life" which is
higher than mere existence; not merely beyond animal existence, but beyond the mere existence

10. of a spiritual being. We English use "life" in the sense of an existence which has a purpose and
makes the most of itself. And the Greeks had an especial word to describe the true life of man,
his highest spiritual energy. This is the word employed by our Lord and by St. Paul. This
enrichment and elevation of being is derived from our Lord. He is the Author of our new life,
just as our first parent is the source of our first and natural existence. On this account St. Paul
calls Him the Second Adam. And, in point of fact, He is the parent of a race of spiritual men who
push human life to its highest capacities of excellence. When our Lord was upon earth He
communicated His Life to men, by coming in contact with them. Men felt the contagion of a
presence, the influence of which they could not measure, a presence from which there radiated a
subtle, mysterious energy, which was gradually taking possession of them they knew not exactly
how, and making them begin to live a new and higher life. What that result was upon four men
of very different types of character we may gather from the reports of the Life of Christ which
are given us by the evangelists. But at last He died, and arose and disappeared from sight. And it
is of this after time that He says, "Because I live, ye shall live also." How does He communicate
His life when the creative stimulus of His visible Presence has been withdrawn?
1. By His Spirit. That Divine and Personal force, whereby the mind and nature of the unseen
Saviour is poured into the hearts and minds and characters of men, was to be the Lord and Giver
of this life to the end of time. (John 16:14; Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
2. By the Christian sacraments, the guaranteed points of contact with our unseen Saviour; for in
them we may certainly meet Him and be invigorated by Him as we toil along the road of our
pilgrimage.Conclusion:
1. It is this new life which makes it a blessing to have the prospect before us that we shall
individually exist forever.
2. Our immortality is certain. But what sort of immortality is it to be?
(Canon Liddon.)
Life in Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.I. LIFE. We must not confound this with existence. Before the disciples believed
in Jesus they existed, and altogether apart from Him as their spiritual life their existence would
have been continued. Life, what is it? We cannot tell in words. We know it, however, to be a
mystery of different degrees. There is the life of the vegetable. There is a considerable advance
when we come to animal life. Sensation, appetite, instinct, are things to which plants are dead.
Then there is mental life, which introduces us into quite another realm. To judge, to foresee, to
imagine, to invent, to perform moral acts, are not these functions which the ox hath not? Now,
far above this there is another form of life of which the mere carnal man can form no more idea
than the plant can of the animal, or the animal of the poet. Education cannot raise man into it,
neither can refinement reach it; for at its best, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and to all
must the humbling truth be spoken, "Ye must be born again." It is to be remarked concerning our
life in Christ, that it is —
1. The removal of the penalty which fell upon our race for Adam's sin.
2. Spiritual life. Christ works in us through His Holy Spirit, who dwelleth in us evermore.
3. A life in union with God (Romans 8:6-8). Death as to the body consists in its separation from
the soul; the death of the soul lies mainly in the soul's being separated from its God.

11. 4. This life bears fruit on earth in righteousness and true holiness, and it is made perfect in the
presence of God in heaven.
II. LIFE PRESERVED. "Ye shall live also." Concerning this sentence, note —
1. Its fulness. Whatever is meant by living shall be ours. All the degree of life which is secured in
the covenant of grace, believers shall have. All your new nature shall thoroughly, eternally live.
Not even, in part, shall the new man die. "I am come," saith Christ, "that ye might have life, and
have it more abundantly."
2. Its continuance. During our abode in this body we shall live. And when the natural death
comes, which indeed to us is no longer death, our inner life shall suffer no hurt whatever; it will
not even be suspended for a moment. And in the awful future, when the judgment comes, the
begotten of God shall live. Onward through eternity, whatever may be the changes which yet are
to be disclosed, nothing shall affect our God-given life.
3. Its universality. Every child of God shall live. The Lord bestows security upon the least of His
people as well as upon the greatest. If it had been said, "Because your faith is strong, ye shall
live," then weak faith would have perished; but when it is written, "Because I live," the argument
is as powerful in the one case as in the other.
4. Its breadth. See how it overturns all the hopes of the adversary. You shall not be decoyed by
fair temptation, nor be cowed by fierce persecution: mightier is he that is in you than he which is
in the world. Satan will attack you, and his weapons are deadly, but you shall foil him at all
points. If God should allow you to be sorely tried your spirit shall still maintain its holy life, and
you shall prove it so by blessing and magnifying God, notwithstanding all. We little dream what
may be reserved for us; we may have to climb steeps of prosperity, slippery and dangerous, but
we shall live; we may be called to sink in the dark waters of adversity, but we shall live. If old
age shall be our portion, and our crown shall be delayed till we have fought a long and weary
battle, yet nevertheless we shall live; or if sudden death should cut short the time of our trail
here, yet we shall have lived in the fulness of that word.
III. THE REASON FOR THE SECURITY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. "Because I live."
1. This is the sole reason. When I first come to Christ, I know I must find all in Him, for I feel I
have nothing of my own; but all my life long I am to acknowledge the same absolute
dependence. Does not the Christian's life depend upon his prayerfulness? The Christian's
spiritual health depends upon his prayerfulness, but that prayerfulness depends on something
else. The reason why the hands of the clock move may be found first in a certain wheel which
operates upon them, but if you go to the primary cause of all, you reach the mainspring, or the
weight, which is the source of all the motion. "But are not good works essential to the
maintenance of the spiritual life?" Certainly, if there be no good works, we have no evidence of
spiritual life. To the tree the fruit is not the cause of life, but the result of it, and to the life of the
Christian, good works bear the same relationship, they are its outgrowth, not its root.
2. It is a sufficient reason, for —(1) Christ's life is a proof that His work has accomplished the
redemption of His people.(2) He is the representative of those for whom He is the Federal Head.
Shall the representative live, and yet those represented die?(3) He is the surety for His people,
under bonds and pledges to bring His redeemed safely home.(4) We who have spiritual life are
one with Christ Jesus. Jesus is the head of the mystical body, they are the members. What were
the head without the body?

12. 3. An abiding reason — which has as much force at one time as another. From causes variable
the effects are variable; but remaining causes produce permanent effects. Now Jesus always
lives.
4. A most instructive reason. It instructs us to admire —(1) The condescension of Christ.(2) To
be abundantly grateful.(3) To keep up close communion with Christ.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fellowship in Christ's life
J. Brown, D. D.These words strikingly resemble the declaration of our Lord to John in Patmos
(Revelation 1:17, 18).
I. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. "I live."
1. Our Lord, as a Divine Person, is possessed of independent, infinite. immutable, eternal life;
that is, capacity of action and enjoyment. In Him — was, is, and ever will be, "the fountain of
life" (John 1:4; 1 John 1:2; Psalm 36:9).
2. It is not, however, to this life that reference is made. That is a life in which none can
participate beyond the sacred circle of Deity. The life is the life which belongs to the Son, as
God-man, Mediator; and it refers to this life in its state of full development, after His
resurrection.
3. He had lived the life of a man in union with God while He was on the earth — of the God-
man, commissioned to give life — and many and striking were the demonstrations that He gave
of His possession of this life. But, till sin was expiated, this life could not be fully developed nor
displayed. That death in the flesh, which was the bearing away of the sins of men, was the
procuring cause of that "quickening in the Spirit" which followed.
4. It is, however, to the new development of life which accompanied and followed the
resurrection that our Lord refers. "I am alive again," "I have the keys of hell and of death." His
life is royal life — the life of "the King of kings and Lord of lords" (Psalm 21:1-7; Isaiah 53:10).
II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST'S PEOPLE. "Ye shall live also."
1. Christ rose as "the first fruits of them that sleep in Him," the first born of the chosen family,
their representative and forerunner.
2. Christians are, by faith, so identified with Jesus Christ as to be partakers with Him of that life
on which He entered, when, being raised from the dead, He sat down forever on the right hand of
the Majesty on high. They "reign in life with Him" — in Him (Romans 5:17; Romans 6:8-11;
Ephesians 2:5, 6; Colossians 3:1-4; Galatians 2:19, 20). This life is —
(1)One of holy activity and enjoyment.
(2)Immortal.
(3)Incomplete now, but destined to be complete at the Resurrection. "We shall be like Him."
III. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO. "Because" —
1. His life proves that He has done all that is necessary in order to secure life for them. Had He
not succeeded in doing this He Himself would not thus have lived. His resurrection and celestial
life are undoubted proofs that the sentence adjudging us to death was repealed, and the influence

13. that was necessary to make us live was sent forth. So were we not to live, the great end for which
He died and rose would be frustrated.
2. His life shows that He possesses all that is necessary to bestow life on His people. "The Father
hath given to Him to have life in Himself; so that He quickeneth whom He will." "It has pleased
the Father, that in Him all fulness should dwell," that out of His fulness His people may receive,
and grace for grace.Conclusion:
1. This truth is calculated to sustain and comfort Christians amid all the sufferings, and anxieties,
and sorrows of life and death. He can "give power to the faint, and to them that have no power
He increaseth strength." He can "strengthen the things that remain, and are ready to die."
2. When our nearest and dearest are taken from us, how consoling to think the great God our
Saviour lives! He is still their life, still our life. "Because He died, we live; because He lives, we
live; because He lives" — because He is the living One — "we shall live also!" Happy, surely,
are the living disciples of the living Saviour! Happy in prosperity — happy in adversity — happy
in life — happy in death — happy forever!
3. But the Saviour's unending life is full of terror to His enemies because He ever lives. "Because
I live, you must perish forever." They would not come to Him that they might have life.
4. He is still proclaiming, "As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." "I will that
they would turn — I will that they would live."
(J. Brown, D. D.)
The Christian's life force
L. O. Thompson.Christ is the basis of —
I. PHYSICAL LIFE. He is the Creator, and the life of Adam and Eve after the fall depended
entirely on the promise of the Redeemer. His advent postulated the continuance of the race. The
birth of the first child was a prelude to the gospel. It may be that Eve saw in the birth of Cain the
fulfilment of the promise, for she said, "I have borne the seed, a man, the Lord."
II. THE RENEWED LIFE. The plan of redemption depends upon His incarnation and
atonement. There is no spiritual life on earth apart from Him. The fact that there are millions of
Christians who live by faith in Him under the dispensation of the Spirit, proves the reality of His
life, of its continuance and power. Because He lives, we live, and our life is hid with Christ in
God.
III. THE RISEN LIFE in glory, to all eternity. Because He continues to live, His disciples shall
continue to live also. "When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
Him in glory." Reflections:(1) Apart from Christ, the Christian can do nothing.(2) The fact that
Jesus continues to live, is the assurance that all who believe in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life.(3) How great will appear at last the guilt of those who reject Christ, when they shall
learn that even their bodily life has depended upon Him, and that, being destitute of His Spirit,
they are none of His.
(L. O. Thompson.)
The believer's life
John Milne."Because I live, ye shall live also." What life is it that Christ speaks of when He here
says, "I live?" It is the life which He now has in heaven, and which began at the Resurrection. It

14. is different from all other life, higher and better than any life with which we are acquainted. It is
everlasting life; He has done with death. It is a life of liberty; He has done with servile work, and
now reigns on high. It is a life of glory; He has done with shame, and has a name that is above
every name. It is a life of favour; He is now very near and very dear to God forever. He never
slumbers nor sleeps; He has all power in heaven and on earth; He is Head over all things to the
Church. But what is the believer's life of which Christ speaks, when He says, "Ye shall live
also." It is the same as Christ's own life, of which we have been speaking. It springs out of His
life, and is fed and maintained by it. True, the believer's natural life is like that of all other men:
one of sin, misery, without God, without hope under wrath, on the way to everlasting woe. It is
not worthy of the name of life; it is properly death. But this natural life loses its power and
dominion when we believe on Christ. It received its death-blow on the cross. Hence the apostle
says, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" and the believer answers, "I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." At present this higher life is only in its infancy. It is
hindered by its connection with the old life, by the circumstances in which it is placed by its
absence from Christ its Fountain. The life of the believer is the same in nature as Christ's; the
same in duration. It is the same in the reason for which it is bestowed. Christ got it, because He
wrought out the perfect, everlasting righteousness; we get it, because by faith we have received
that righteousness. It is the same in its origin. It began in Christ, when God wrought in Him by
His mighty power, to raise Him from the dead. It begins in us by the working of the same mighty
power. But what assurance have we that this life of Christ will always continue to be imparted to
His people? This springs from the relation which He holds to them. He is their Surety,
Representative, Covenant Head.
(John Milne.)
The continued life of Christ the ground of our hope
Ray Palmer, D. D.Christ lives —
I. IN ALL THE STRENGTH AND TENDERNESS OF HIS AFFECTIONS. A heart which bore
the agony, shame, desertion of His disciples must be always warm towards those whose salvation
He seeks.
II. IS HIS ABILITY TO HELP TO THE UTMOST. "All power is given unto Me" (Ephesians
1:20-22). "He ever liveth to make intercession."
III. IN A SPECIAL MANNER WITH THE BELIEVER. "I am the Bread of Life;" "I am the
Vine, ye are the branches." The Church is His bride. How can we famish or die?
IV. TO DESTROY ALL POWER THAT IS OPPOSED TO MAN'S REDEMPTION.
(Ray Palmer, D. D.)
The living Church
J. Cumming, D. D.1. The life of the Church of Christ is its most distinctive and glorious
characteristic. It has changed its forms, varied its circumstances, altered its doctrines, but has
maintained in every period of its history its inward life. If justification is the article of a standing
or a falling Church, regeneration, or life by the Holy Spirit, is the article of a living or a dead
Church.

15. 2. This life is communicated, not by anything that is outward, but entirely by the Holy Spirit of
God. The patronage of princes may make a rich or a renowned Church. Eloquence and
orthodoxy may make a convinced or an enlightened, but they cannot make a living Church.
I. THE EVIDENCES OF THIS LIFE. It is easy to ascertain if a man be dead or living physically;
and it is not difficult to ascertain if a man be living or dead spiritually.
1. Life is an internal principle originating outward and visible characteristics. We know not what
life is. All that we know is, that there is some principle within that looks through the. eye, that
hears through the ear, that feels through the touch, that enables me to walk, to speak, and to hold
converse with society around me. Now it is so with spiritual life.
2. Life has the power of assimilation. H a man eats a piece of bread, that bread is so assimilated
that it is turned into the energy of his physical system. And this spiritual life lays hold upon all
the elements of nutriment, as these are laid up in Christ, found in the oracles of truth, and at the
communion table.
3. Life is sensible of pain. A dead man does not feel. What pain is to the body, sin is to the
spiritual life; and just as our nervous system shrinks from the very touch or contact of pain, so
the soul that is in unison with God shrinks from sin as its greatest evil, and the immediate source
of all misery.
4. Wherever there is life, we find it has within itself the power of adaptation to varied
temperature. Man lives at the Pole, as he lives below the Line. And if there be life in man's soul,
that life will adjust itself; will not be conquered by, but will conquer its circumstances. Place the
Christian in the palace with Pharaoh, or in the dungeon with Joseph, and he can breathe the
atmosphere of the one just as he can the other.
5. Life is progressive, and Spiritual life grows in likeness to Christ. Its progress is illimitable,
because the principle itself is infinite.
6. Life is communicative. The proof that a man is no Christian is, that he is no missionary.
Monopoly is a word banished from the religion of heaven. The Christian cannot see pain he does
not wish to alleviate; ignorance he does not wish to enlighten; death in trespasses and sins to
which he would not communicate a portion of his own spiritual life.
II. THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS TO WHICH THIS LIFE SPECIALLY REFERS. A
Christian is alive —
1. To the presence of God. "Thou God seest me" is the constant feeling of the Christian.
2. To the favour of God. "Who will show us any good?" is the question with the worldling; but
the Christian says, "Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy countenance."
3. To the glory of God. We are prone to think that Christianity is a thing for the Bible, for the
Sunday, for the Church merely. But it is meant to be like the great principle of gravitation which
controls the planet and the pebble. When you transact business you are bound to do it to the
glory of God. In your homes, whether your tables be covered with all the luxuries, or merely
with the necessaries of life, "ye are to do all to the glory of God."
III. THIS LIFE HAS CERTAIN SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS. It is —
1. A holy life. If there be God's life in man's heart, there must be God's holiness in man's
conduct.

16. 2. A happy life. Joy is one of the fruits it bears.
3. A royal life. "He has made us kings and priests unto God." We are "a royal priesthood."
4. An immortal life. All systems, hierarchies, and empires shall be dissolved; but the man that
has the life of God in his heart has the immortality of God as his prerogative. Conclusion: The
history of the Church that has possessed this vital principle has been throughout a very painful
but a very triumphant one. That vitality must be a reality since nothing has been ever able to
extinguish or destroy it. Systems that chime in with the fallen propensities of man have sunk
before rival systems; but Christianity, which rebukes man's pride, which bridles man's lusts,
which rebukes man's sins, has outlived all persecution, survived all curse, and seems to
commence in the nineteenth century, a career that shall be bounded only by the limits of the
population of the globe itself. Is not this evidence of a Divine presence — of a Divine power?
Let me make one or two inferences.This life is —
1. The true secret and source of ministerial success.
2. The source of all missionary effort.
3. The true distinction between the Church and the world.
4. The true safety of the Church.
5. The great want of the Church today.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
Immortality as taught by the Christ
T. T. Munger.1. Science may throw no barrier in the way of belief in immortality; nature and the
heart of man may suggest clear intimations of a future life; human society may demand another
life to complete the suggestions and fill up the lacks of this; but, for some reason, all such proof
fails to satisfy us. It holds the mind, but does not minister to the heart.
2. It is noticeable also that the faith of natural evidence awakens no joyful enthusiasm in masses
of mankind. Plato and Cicero discourse of immortality with a certain degree of warmth, but their
countrymen get little comfort from it. The reason is evident. The mere fact that I shall live
tomorrow does not sensibly move me. Something must be joined with existence before it gets
power.
3. We will now consider the way in which Christ treated the subject.
I. HE ASSUMED THE RECEIVED DOCTRINE AND BUILT UPON IT. When He entered on
His ministry He found certain imperfect or germinal truths existing in Jewish theology. He found
a doctrine of God, partial in conception; He perfected it by revealing the Divine Fatherhood. He
found a doctrine of sin and righteousness turning upon external conduct; He transferred it to the
heart and spirit. He found a doctrine of immortality, held as mere future existence. His treatment
of this doctrine was not so much corrective as accretive. Hence He never uses any word
corresponding to immortality (which is a mere negation — unmortal), but always speaks of life.
He never makes a straight assertion of it except once, when the Sadducees pressed Him with a
quibbling argument against the resurrection. Elsewhere He simply assumes it. But an assumption
is often the strongest kind of argument. It implies such conviction in the mind of the speaker that
there is no need of proof.

17. II. IN HIS MIND THE INTENSE AND ABSOLUTE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD CARRIES
WITH IT IMMORTALITY, AS IT DOES THE WHOLE BODY OF HIS TRUTH. Within this
universe, at its centre, is world around which all others revolve, the sun of suns, the centre of all
systems, whose potency reaches to the uttermost verge, holding them steady to their courses. It is
not otherwise in morals. Given the fact of God, and all other truth takes its place without
question. Hence, when there is an overpowering, all-possessing sense of God as there was in
Christ, truth takes on absolute forms; hence it was that He spoke with authority. It was Christ's
realization of the living God that rendered His conviction of eternal life so absolute. We can but
notice how grandly Christ reposed upon this fact of immortal life. He feels no need of examining
the evidences or balancing proofs. He stands steadily upon life, life endless by its own Divine
nature. Death was no leap in the dark to Him; it was simply a door leading into another mansion
of God's great house. It is proper to ask here, "Is it probable that Christ was mistaken? That His
faith in immortality was but an in. tense form of a prevailing superstition?" If we could find any
weakness elsewhere in His teachings, there would be ground for such questions. But as a moral
teacher He stands at the head, unimpeachable in the minutest particular. Is it probable that, true
in all else, He was in fault in this one respect? That a body of truth all interwoven and suffused
with life is based upon an illusion of life? If one tells me ninety-nine truths, I will trust him in the
hundredth, especially if it is involved in those before. Build me a column perfect in base and
body, and I will know if the capital is true. When the clearest eyes that ever looked on this world
and into the heavens, and the keenest judgment that ever weighed human life, and the purest
heart that ever throbbed with human sympathy, tells me that man is immortal, I repose on His
teaching in perfect trust. It is reason to see with the wise, and to feel with the good. Still another
distinction must be made; we do not accept immortality because Jesus, the wise young Jew,
wove it into His precepts, but because the Christ, the Son of God and of man — Humanity
revealing Deity — makes it a part of that order of human history best named as the reconciliation
of the world to God.
III. HE DOES NOT THINK OF IT AS A FUTURE, BUT AS A PRESENT FACT. As time in
the Divine mind is an eternal now, so it seems to have been with Christ. If the cup of life is full,
there is little sense of past or future; the present is enough. When Christ speaks of eternal life, He
does not mean future endless existence; but fullness or perfection of life. That it will go on
forever is a matter of course, but it is not the important feature of the truth.
IV. And thus we are brought to the fundamental fact that HE CONNECTED LIFE OR
IMMORTALITY WITH CHARACTER. Life, as mere continuance of being, is not worth
thinking about. Of what value is the mere adding of days to days if they are full of sin?
Practically such life is death, and so He names it. There can be no real and abiding faith in
immortality until it becomes wedded to the spiritual nature. When life begins to be true, it
announces itself as an eternal thing to the mind; as a caged bird when let loose into the sky might
say, "Now I know that my wings are made to beat the air in flight;" and no logic could ever
persuade the bird that it was not designed to fly; but when caged, it might have doubted at times,
as it beat the bars of its prison with unavailing stroke, if its wings were made for flight. So it is
not until a man begins to use his soul aright that he knows for what it is made. When he puts his
life into harmony with God's laws; when he begins to pray; when he clothes himself with the
graces of Christian faith and conduct, when he begins to live unto his spiritual nature, he begins
to realize what life is — a reality that death and time cannot touch. But when his life is made up
of the world, it is not strange that it should seem to himself as liable to perish with the world.
Those who believe have everlasting life. Others may exist, but existence is not life. Others may

18. continue to exist, but continuance is not immortality. To lift men out of existence into life was
Christ's mission.
V. He not only gave us the true law, BUT WAS HIMSELF A PERFECT ILLUSTRATION OF
IMMORTALITY, and even named Himself by it — the Life. It is a great thing for us that this
truth has been put into actual fact. Human nature is crowded with hints and omens of it, but
prophecy does not convince till it is fulfilled. And from the Divine side also we get assurances of
endless life; but in so hard a matter we are like Thomas, who needed the sight and touch to
assure him. And in Christ we have both — the human omen and the Divine promise turned into
fact. In some of the cathedrals of Europe, on Christmas eve, two small lights, typifying the
Divine and human nature, are gradually made to approach one another until they meet and blend,
forming a bright flame. Thus, in Christ, we have the light of two worlds thrown upon human
destiny. The whole bearing of Christ towards death, and His treatment of it, was as one superior
to it, and as having no lot nor part in it. He will indeed bow his head in obedience to the physical
laws of the humanity He shares, but already He enters the gates of Paradise, not alone but
leading a penitent child of humanity by the hand. And in order that we may know He simply
changed worlds, He comes back and shows Himself alive; for He is not here in the world simply
to assert truth, but to enact it. And still further to show us how phantasmal death is, He finally
departs in all the fullness of life, simply drawing about Himself the thin drapery of a cloud.
Conclusion: A true and satisfying sense of immortality cannot be taken second hand. We cannot
read it in the pages of a book, whether of nature or inspiration. We cannot even look upon the
man Jesus issuing from the tomb, and draw from thence a faith that yields peace. There must be
fellowship with the Christ of the Resurrection before we can feel its power; in other words, we
must get over upon the Divine side of life before we can be assured of eternal life. "Join thyself,"
says , "to the eternal God, and thou wilt be eternal."
(T. T. Munger.)
Living because Christ lives
C. H. Spurgeon.When Luther was in his worst troubles a friend came in to see him, and he
noticed that he had written upon the wall in big letters the word "Vivit!" He inquired of Luther
what he meant by "vivit?" Luther answered, "Jesus lives; and if He did not live I would not care
to live an hour." Yes, our life is bound up with that of Jesus. We are called upon to live of
ourselves, that would be death; but we have life and all things in union with Him.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) In my Father’s house are many mansions.—The
Greek word used for “house” here is slightly different from that used of the material temple on
earth in John 2:16. The exact meaning will be at once seen from a comparison of 2Corinthians
5:1, the only other passage in the New Testament where it is used metaphorically. The Jews were
accustomed to the thought of heaven as the habitation of God; and the disciples had been taught

19. to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” (Comp. Psalm 23:6; Isaiah 63:15; Matthew 6:9; Acts
7:49; and especially Hebrews 9)
The Greek word for “mansions” occurs again in the New Testament only in John 14:23, where it
is rendered abode.” Wiclif and the Geneva version read “dwellings.” It is found in the Greek of
the Old Testament only in 1 Maccabees 7:38 (“Suffer them not to continue any longer”—“give
them not an abode”). Our translators here followed the Vulgate, which has “mansiones “with the
exact meaning of the Greek, that is; “resting-places,” “dwellings.” In Elizabethan English the
word meant no more than this, and it now means no more in French or in the English of the
North. A maison or a manse, is not necessarily a modern English mansion. It should also be
noted that the Greek word is the substantive answering to the verb which is rendered “dwelleth”
in John 14:10, and “abide” in John 15:4-10. (see Note there).
“Many” is not to be understood, as it often has been, simply or chiefly of different degrees of
happiness in heaven. Happiness depends upon the mind which receives it, and must always exist,
therefore, in varying degrees, but this is not the prominent thought expressed here, though it may
be implied. The words refer rather to the extent of the Father’s house, in which there should be
abiding-places for all. There would be no risk of that house being overcrowded like the
caravanserai at Bethlehem, or like those in which the Passover pilgrims, as at this very time,
found shelter at Jerusalem. Though Peter could not follow Him now, he should hereafter (John
13:36); and for all who shall follow Him there shall be homes.
If it were not so, I would have told you.—These words are not without difficulty, but the
simplest, and probably truest, meaning is obtained by reading them as our version does. They
become then an appeal to our Lord’s perfect candour in dealing with the disciples. He had
revealed to them a Father and a house. That revelation implies a home for all. Were there not
“many mansions” the fulness of His teaching could have had no place. Had there been
limitations He must have marked them out.
I go to prepare a place for you.—The better MSS. read, “For I . . ,” connecting the clause with
the earlier part of the verse. He is going away to prepare a place for them; and this also proves
the existence of the home. There is to be then no separation; He is to enter within the veil, but it
is to be as Forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20). “When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness
of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”
MacLaren's ExpositionsJohn
THE FORERUNNER
‘MANY MANSIONS’
John 14:2.
Sorrow needs simple words for its consolation; and simple words are the best clothing for the
largest truths. These eleven poor men were crushed and desolate at the thought of Christ’s going;
they fancied that if He left them they lost Him. And so, in simple, childlike words, which the
weakest could grasp, and in which the most troubled could find peace, He said to them, after
having encouraged their trust in Him, ‘There is plenty of room for you as well as for Me where I
am going; and the frankness of our intercourse in the past might make you sure that if I were
going to leave you I would have told you all about it. Did I ever hide from you anything that was

20. painful? Did I ever allure you to follow Me by false promises? Should I have kept silence about
it if our separation was to be eternal?’ So, simply, as a mother might hush her babe upon her
breast, He soothes their sorrow. And yet, in the quiet words, so level to the lowest apprehension,
there lie great truths, far deeper than we yet have appreciated, and which will enfold themselves
in their majesty and their greatness through eternity. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you.’
I. Now note in these words, first, the ‘Father’s house,’ and its ample room.
There is only one other occasion recorded in which our Lord used this expression, and it occurs
in this same Gospel near the beginning; where in the narrative of the first cleansing of the
Temple we read that He said, ‘Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.’ The earlier
use of the words may help to throw light upon one aspect of this latter employment of it, for
there blend in the image the two ideas of what I may call domestic familiarity, and of that great
future as being the reality of which the earthly Temple was intended to be the dim prophecy and
shadow. Its courts, its many chambers, its ample porches with room for thronging worshippers,
represented in some poor way the wide sweep and space of that higher house; and the sense of
Sonship, which drew the Boy to His Father’s house in the earliest hours of conscious childhood,
speaks here.
Think for a moment of how sweet and familiar the conception of heaven as the Father’s house
makes it to us. There is something awful, even to the best and holiest souls, in the thought of
even the glories beyond. The circumstances of death, which is its portal, our utter
unacquaintance with all that lies behind the veil, the terrible silence and distance which falls
upon our dearest ones as they are sucked into the cloud, all tend to make us feel that there is
much that is solemn and awful even in the thought of eternal future blessedness. But how it is all
softened when we say, ‘My Father’s house.’ Most of us have long since left behind us the sweet
security, the sense of the absence of all responsibility, the assurance of defence and provision,
which used to be ours when we lived as children in a father’s house here. But we may all look
forward to the renewal, in far nobler form, of these early days, when the father’s house meant the
inexpugnable fortress where no evil could befall us, the abundant home where all wants were
supplied, and where the shyest and timidest child could feel at ease and secure. It is all coming
again, brother, and amidst the august and unimaginable glories of that future the old feeling of
being little children, nestling safe in the Father’s house, will fill our quiet hearts once more.
And then consider how the conception of that Future as the Father’s house suggests answers to
so many of our questions about the relationship of the inmates to one another. Are they to dwell
isolated in their several mansions? Is that the way in which children in a home dwell with each
other? Surely if He be the Father, and heaven be His house, the relation of the redeemed to one
another must have in it more than all the sweet familiarity and unrestrained frankness which
subsists in the families of earth. A solitary heaven would be but half a heaven, and would ill
correspond with the hopes that inevitably spring from the representation of it as ‘my Father’s
house.’
But consider further that this great and tender name for heaven has its deepest meaning in the
conception of it as a spiritual state of which the essential elements are the loving manifestation

21. and presence of God as Father, the perfect consciousness of sonship, the happy union of all the
children in one great family, and the derivation of all their blessedness from their Elder Brother.
The earthly Temple, to which there is some allusion in this great metaphor, was the place in
which the divine glory was manifested to seeking souls, though in symbol, yet also in reality, and
the representation of our text blends the two ideas of the free, frank intercourse of the home and
of the magnificent revelations of the Holy of holies. Under either aspect of the phrase, whether
we think of ‘my Father’s house’ as temple or as home, it sets before us, as the main blessedness
and glory of heaven, the vision of the Father, the consciousness of sonship, and the complete
union with Him. There are many subsidiary and more outward blessednesses and glories which
shine dimly through the haze of metaphors and negations, by which alone a state of which we
have no experience can be revealed to us; but these are secondary. The heaven of heaven is the
possession of God the Father through the Son in the expanding spirits of His sons. The sovereign
and filial position which Jesus Christ in His manhood occupies in that higher house, and which
He shares with all those who by Him have received the adoption of sons, is the very heart and
nerve of this great metaphor.
But I think we must go a step further than that, and recognise that in the image there is inherent
the teaching that that glorious future is not merely a state, but also a place. Local associations are
not to be divorced from the words; and although we can say but little about such a matter, yet
everything in the teaching of Scripture points to the thought that howsoever true it may be that
the essence of heaven is condition, yet that also heaven has a local habitation, and is a place in
the great universe of God. Jesus Christ has at this moment a human body, glorified. That body,
as Scripture teaches us, is somewhere, and where He is there shall also His servant be. In the
context He goes on to tell us that ‘He goes to prepare a place for us,’ and though I would not
insist upon the literal interpretation of such words, yet distinctly the drift of the representation is
in the direction of localising, though not of materialising, the abode of the blessed. So I think we
can say, not merely that what He is that shall also His servants be, but that where He is there
shall also His servants be. And from the representation of my text, though we cannot fathom all
its depths, we can at least grasp this, which gives solidity and reality to our contemplations of the
future, that heaven is a place, full of all sweet security and homelike repose, where God is made
known in every heart and to every consciousness as a loving Father, and of which all the
inhabitants are knit together in the frankest fraternal intercourse, conscious of the Father’s love,
and rejoicing in the abundant provisions of His royal House.
And then there is a second thought to be suggested from these words, and that is of the ample
room in this great house. The original purpose of the words of my text, as I have already
reminded you, was simply to soothe the fears of a handful of disciples.
There was room where Christ went for eleven poor men. Yes, room enough for them! but
Christ’s prescient eye looked down the ages, and saw all the unborn millions that would yet be
drawn to Him uplifted on the Cross, and some glow of satisfaction flitted across His sorrow, as
He saw from afar the result of the impending travail of His soul in the multitudes by whom
God’s heavenly house should yet be filled. ‘Many mansions!’ the thought widens out far beyond
our grasp. Perhaps that upper room, like most of the roof-chambers in Jewish houses, was open
to the skies, and whilst He spoke, the innumerable lights that blaze in that clear heaven shone

22. down upon them, and He may have pointed to these. The better Abraham perhaps looked forth,
like His prototype, on the starry heavens, and saw in the vision of the future those who through
Him should receive the ‘adoption of sons’ and dwell for ever in the house of the Lord, ‘so many
as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.’
Ah! brethren, if we could only widen our measurement of the walls of the New Jerusalem to the
measurement of that ‘golden rod which the man, that is the angel,’ as John says, applied to it, we
should understand how much bigger it is than any of these poor sects and communities of ours
here on earth. If we would lay to heart, as we ought to do, the deep meaning of that indefinite
‘many’ in my text, it would rebuke our narrowness. There will be a great many occupants of the
mansions in heaven that Christian men here on earth-the most Catholic of them-will be very
much surprised to see there, and thousands will find their entrance there that never found their
entrance into any communities of so-called Christians here on earth.
That one word ‘many’ should deepen our confidence in the triumphs of Christ’s Cross, and it
may be used to heighten our own confidence as to our own poor selves. A chamber in the great
Temple waits for each of us, and the question is, Shall we occupy it, or shall we not? The old
Rabbis had a tradition which, like a great many of their apparently foolish sayings, covers in
picturesque guise a very deep truth. They said that, however many the throngs of worshippers
who came up to Jerusalem at the passover, the streets of the city and the courts of the sanctuary
were never crowded. And so it is with that great city. There is room for all. There are throngs,
but no crowds. Each finds a place in the ample sweep of the Father’s house, like some of the
great palaces that barbaric Eastern kings used to build, in whose courts armies might encamp,
and the chambers of which were counted by the thousand. And surely in all that ample
accommodation, you and I may find some corner where we, if we will, may lodge for evermore.
I do not dwell upon subsidiary ideas that may be drawn from the expressions. ‘Mansions’ means
places of permanent abode, and suggests the two thoughts, so sweet to travellers and toilers in
this fleeting, labouring life, of unchangeableness and of repose. Some have supposed that the
variety in the attainments of the redeemed, which is reasonable and scriptural, might be deduced
from our text, but that does not seem to be relevant to our Lord’s purpose.
One other suggestion may be made without enlarging upon it. There is only one other occasion
in this Gospel in which the word here translated ‘mansions’ is employed, and it is this: ‘We will
come and make our abode with him.’ Our mansion is in God; God’s dwelling-place is in us. So
ask yourselves, Have you a place in that heavenly home? When prodigal children go away from
the father’s house, sometimes a broken-hearted parent will keep the boy’s room just as it used to
be when he was young and pure, and will hope and weary through long days for him to come
back and occupy it again. God is keeping a room for you in His house; do you see that you fill it.
II. In the next place, note here the sufficiency of Christ’s revelation for our needs.
‘If it were not so I would have told you.’ He sets Himself forward in very august fashion as being
the Revealer and Opener of that house for us. There is a singular tone about all our Lord’s few
references to the future-a tone of decisiveness; not as if He were speaking, as a man might do,
that which he had thought out, or which had come to him, but as if He was speaking of what he

23. had Himself beheld, ‘We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.’ He stands like
one on a mountain top, looking down into the valleys beyond, and telling His comrades in the
plain behind Him what He sees. He speaks of that unseen world always as One who had been in
it, and who was reporting experiences, and not giving forth opinions. His knowledge was the
knowledge of One who dwelt with the Father, and left the house in order to find and bring back
His wandering brethren. It was ‘His own calm home, His habitation from eternity,’ and therefore
He could tell us with decisiveness, with simplicity, with assurance, all which we need to know
about the geography of that unknown land-the plan of that, by us unvisited, house. Very
remarkable, therefore, is it, that with this tone there should be such reticence in Christ’s
references to the future. The text implies the rationale of such reticence. ‘If it were not so I would
have told you.’ I tell you all that you need, though I tell you a great deal less than you sometimes
wish.
The gaps in our knowledge of the future, seeing that we have such a Revealer as we have in
Christ, are remarkable. But my text suggests this to us-we have as much as we need. I know, and
many of you know, by bitter experience, how many questions, the answers to which would seem
to us to be such a lightening of our burdens, our desolated and troubled hearts suggest about that
future, and how vainly we ply heaven with questions and interrogate the unreplying Oracle. But
we know as much as we need. We know that God is there. We know that it is the Father’s house.
We know that Christ is in it. We know that the dwellers there are a family. We know that sweet
security and ample provision are there; and, for the rest, if we I needed to have heard more, He
would have told us.
‘My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all;
And I shall be with Him.’
Let the gaps remain. The gaps are part of the revelation, and we know enough for faith and hope.
May we not widen the application of that thought to other matters than to our bounded and
fragmentary conceptions of a future life? In times like the present, of doubt and unrest, it is a
great piece of Christian wisdom to recognise the limitations of our knowledge and the
sufficiency of the fragments that we have. What do we get a revelation for? To solve theological
puzzles and dogmatic difficulties? to inflate us with the pride of quasi-omniscience? or to present
to us God in Christ for faith, for love, for obedience, for imitation? Surely the latter, and for such
purposes we have enough.
So let us recognise that our knowledge is very partial. A great stretch of wall is blank, and there
is not a window in it. If there had been need for one, it would have been struck out. He has been
pleased to leave many things obscure, not arbitrarily, so as to try our faith-for the implication of
the words before us is that the relation between Him and us binds Him to the utmost possible
frankness, and that all which we need and He can tell us He does tell-but for high reasons, and

24. because of the very conditions of our present environment, which forbid the more complete and
all-round knowledge.
So let us recognise our limitations. We know in part, and we are wise if we affirm in part. Hold
by the Central Light, which is Jesus Christ. ‘Many things did Jesus which are not written in this
book,’ and many gaps and deficiencies from a human point of view exist in the contexture of
revelation. ‘But these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ,’ for which enough
has been told us, ‘and that, believing, ye may have life in His name.’ If that purpose be
accomplished in us, God will not have spoken, nor we have heard, in vain. Let us hold by the
Central Light, and then the circumference of darkness will gradually retreat, and a wider sphere
of illumination be ours, until the day when we enter our mansion in the Father’s house, and then
‘in Thy Light shall we see light’; and we shall ‘know even as we are known.’
Let your Elder Brother lead you back, dear friend, to the Father’s bosom, and be sure that if you
trust Him and listen to Him, you will know enough on earth to turn earth into a foretaste of
Heaven, and will find at last your place in the Father’s house beside the Brother who has
prepared it for you.
Benson CommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/john/14-2.htm"John 14:2-4. In my Father’s house
— From whence I came, whither I am going, and to which place I am conducting you; are many
mansions — or apartments (he alludes to the palaces of kings) sufficient to receive the holy
angels, your predecessors in the faith, and all that now believe, or shall hereafter believe, even a
great multitude, which no man can number. Our Lord means by the expression, different states of
felicity in which men shall be placed, according to their progress in faith and holiness. If it were
not so — If there were no state of felicity hereafter, into which good men are to be received at
death, I would have told you so, and not have permitted you to impose upon yourselves by a vain
expectation of what shall never exist; much less would I have said so much as I have done to
confirm that expectation: but as it is in itself a glorious reality, so I am now going, not only to
receive my own reward, but to prepare a place for you there. By passing into the heavens, as
your great High-Priest, through the merit of my sacrifice, and by appearing in the presence of
God as your Advocate and Intercessor, I shall procure for you an entrance into that place, which
otherwise would have been inaccessible to you. And if I then go and prepare a place for you —
You may depend upon it that this preparation shall not be in vain; but that I will certainly act so
consistent a part as to come again and receive you to myself, that where I am — And shall for
ever be; ye — After a short separation; may be also — To dwell for ever with me, and partake in
my felicity. And — Surely I may say in the general, after all the instructions I have given you;
that whither I go ye know, &c. — That ye cannot but know the place to which I am going, and
the way that leads to it; for I have told you both plainly enough.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary14:1-11 Here are three words, upon any of which stress
may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your
heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the
sorrows of this present time, be not you so. Christ's disciples, more than others, should keep their
minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against this trouble of mind,
Believe. By believing in Christ as the Mediator between God and man, we gain comfort. The
happiness of heaven is spoken of as in a father's house. There are many mansions, for there are
many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of
that of which he is the Author or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare

25. us for it. Christ is the sinner's Way to the Father and to heaven, in his person as God manifest in
the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and as our Advocate. He is the Truth, as fulfilling all the
prophecies of a Saviour; believing which, sinners come by him the Way. He is the Life, by
whose life-giving Spirit the dead in sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God as a
Father, who is not quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as the Truth, to come by
Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go to God, and his blessings come to us; this
is the Way that leads to rest, the good old Way. He is the Resurrection and the Life. All that saw
Christ by faith, saw the Father in Him. In the light of Christ's doctrine, they saw God as the
Father of lights; and in Christ's miracles, they saw God as the God of power. The holiness of
God shone in the spotless purity of Christ's life. We are to believe the revelation of God to man
in Christ; for the works of the Redeemer show forth his own glory, and God in him.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleIn my Father's house - Most interpreters understand this of heaven, as
the special dwelling-place or palace of God; but it may include the universe, as the abode of the
omnipresent God.
Are many mansions - The word rendered "mansions" means either the act of dwelling in any
place (John 14:23, "we will make our abode with him"), or it means the place where one dwells.
It is taken from the verb to remain, and signifies the place where one dwells or remains. It is
applied by the Greek writers to the tents or temporary habitations which soldiers pitch in their
marches. It denotes a dwelling of less permanency than the word house. It is commonly
understood as affirming that in heaven there is ample room to receive all who will come; that
therefore the disciples might be sure that they would not be excluded. Some have understood it
as affirming that there will be different grades in the joys of heaven; that some of the mansions
of the saints will be nearer to God than others, agreeably to 1 Corinthians 15:40-41. But perhaps
this passage may have a meaning which has not occurred to interpreters.
Jesus was consoling his disciples, who were affected with grief at the idea of his separation. To
comfort them he addresses them in this language: "The universe is the dwelling-place of my
Father. All is his house. Whether on earth or in heaven, we are still in his habitation. In that vast
abode of God there are many mansions. The earth is one of them, heaven is another. Whether
here or there, we are still in the house, in one of the mansions of our Father, in one of the
apartments of his vast abode. This we ought continually to feel, and to rejoice that we are
permitted to occupy any part of his dwelling-place. Nor does it differ much whether we are in
this mansion or another. It should not be a matter of grief when we are called to pass from one
part of this vast habitation of God to another. I am indeed about to leave you, but I am going only
to another part of the vast dwelling-place of God. I shall still be in the same universal habitation
with you; still in the house of the same God; and am going for an important purpose - to fit up
another abode for your eternal dwelling." If this be the meaning, then there is in the discourse
true consolation. We see that the death of a Christian is not to be dreaded, nor is it an event over
which we should immoderately weep. It is but removing from one apartment of God's universal
dwelling-place to another - one where we shall still be in his house, and still feel the same
interest in all that pertains to his kingdom. And especially the removal of the Saviour from the
earth was an event over which Christians should rejoice, for he is still in the house of God, and
still preparing mansions of rest for His people.
If it were not so ... - I have concealed from you no truth. You have been cherishing this hope of a
future abode with God. Had it been ill founded I would have told you plainly, as I have told you

26. other things. Had any of you been deceived, as Judas was, I would have made it known to you,
as I did to him."
I go to prepare a place for you - By his going is meant his death and ascent to heaven. The figure
here is taken from one who is on a journey, who goes before his companions to provide a place
to lodge in, and to make the necessary preparations for their entertainment. It evidently means
that he, by the work he was yet to perform in heaven, would secure their admission there, and
obtain for them the blessings of eternal life. That work would consist mainly in his intercession,
Hebrews 10:12-13, Hebrews 10:19-22; Hebrews 7:25-27; Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 4:16.
That where I am - This language could be used by no one who was not then in the place of which
he was speaking, and it is just such language as one would naturally use who was both God and
man - in reference to his human nature, speaking of his going to his Father; and in reference to
his divine nature, speaking as if he was then with God.
Ye may be also - This was language eminently fitted to comfort them. Though about to leave
them, yet he would not always be absent. He would come again at the day of judgment and
gather all his friends to himself, and they should be ever with him, Hebrews 9:28. So shall all
Christians be with him. And so, when we part with a beloved Christian friend by death, we may
feel assured that the separation will not be eternal. We shall meet again, and dwell in a place
where there shall be no more separation and no more tears.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary2. In my Father's house are many mansions—and so
room for all, and a place for each.
if not, I would have told you—that is, I would tell you so at once; I would not deceive you.
I go to prepare a place for you—to obtain for you a right to be there, and to possess your "place."
Matthew Poole's Commentary Our Lord’s first argument brought to comfort them, from the
place whither he was going, and the end of his going thither. The place whither he was going was
his
Father’s house, so as they needed not to be troubled for him, he was but going home; nor was
God his Father only, but theirs also, as he afterwards saith, I go to my Father, and your Father.
And here he tells them, that in his Father’s house there was not only a mansion, that is, an
abiding place for him, but for many others also.
Our days on the earth (saith David, 1 Chronicles 29:15) are as a shadow, and there is no abiding;
but in heaven there are monai, abiding places. We shall (saith the apostle, 1 Thessalonians 4:17)
be ever with the Lord. And the mansions there are many; there is room enough for all believers. I
would not have deceived you; if there had been no place in heaven but for me, I would have told
you of it; but there are many mansions there.
I go to prepare a place for you: the place was prepared of old; those who shall be saved, were of
old ordained unto life. That kingdom was prepared for them before the foundation of the world;
that is, in the counsels and immutable purpose of God. These mansions for believers in heaven
were to be sprinkled with blood: the sprinkling of the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the
ministry, were typical of it; but the heaven things themselves with better sacrifices than these,
saith the apostle, Hebrews 9:21,23. By his resurrection from the dead, and becoming the first
fruits of those that sleep; by his ascension into heaven, as our forerunner, Hebrews 6:20; by his

27. sitting at the right hand of God, and making intercession for us; he prepares for us a place in
heaven. And thus he comforteth his disciples, (as to the want of his bodily presence), as from the
consideration of the place whither he went, so from the end of his going thither, which was, to do
those acts which were necessary in order to His disciples’ inheriting those blessed mansions
which were prepared for them from before the foundation of the world.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleIn my Father's house are many mansions,.... This he says to
draw off their minds from an earthly kingdom to an heavenly one; to point out the place to them
whither he was going, and to support them with the views and hopes of glory under all their
troubles. By his "Father's house" is meant heaven; see 2 Corinthians 5:1; which is of his Father's
building, where he has, and will have all his family. This Christ says partly to reconcile the
minds of his disciples to his departure from them, and partly to strengthen their hope of
following him thither; since it was his Father's, and their Father's house whither he was going,
and in which "are many mansions"; abiding or dwelling places; mansions of love, peace, joy, and
rest, which always remain: and there are "many" of them, which does not design different
degrees of glory; for since the saints are all loved with the same love, bought with the same
price, justified with the same righteousness, and are equally the sons of God, their glory will be
the same. But, it denotes fulness and sufficiency of room for all his people; for the many
ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ gave his life a ransom, and whose blood is shed for the
remission of their sins, whose sins he bore, and whom he justifies by his knowledge; who receive
him by faith, and are the many sons he will bring to glory. And this is said for the comfort of the
disciples who might be assured from hence, that there would be room not only for himself and
Peter, whom he had promised should follow him hereafter, but for them all. Very agreeable to
this way of speaking are many things in the Jewish writings:
"says R. Isaack (o), how many , "mansions upon mansions", are there for the righteous in that
world? and the uppermost mansion of them all is the love of their Lord.''
Moreover, they say (p), that
"in the world to come every righteous man shall have "a mansion", to himself.''
Sometimes they (q) speak of "seven mansions" (a number of perfection) being prepared for the
righteous in the other world, though entirely ignorant of the person by whom these mansions are
prepared: who here says,
if it were not so, I, would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. This expresses the
certainty of it, that his Father had a house, and in it were many mansions, room enough for all his
people, or he would have informed them otherwise, who must needs know the truth of these
things, since he came from thence; and who never deceives with vain hopes of glory; and
whatever he says is truth, and to be depended on; everything he here delivers; both what he said
before, and also what follows: "I go to prepare a place for you"; heaven is a kingdom prepared by
the Father for his saints, from the foundation of the world; and again, by the presence and
intercession of Christ, who is gone before, and is as a forerunner entered into it, and has took
possession of it in the name of his people; and by his own appearance there for them with his
blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, he is, as it were, fitting up these mansions for their reception,
whilst they are by his Spirit and grace fitting and preparing for the enjoyment of them.
(o) Zohar in Deut. fol. 113. 1.((p) Praefat ad Sepher Raziel, fol. 2. 1. Nishmat Chayim, fol. 26. 2.
& 27. 1.((q) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1. Nishmat Chayim, fol. 32. 2. Midrash Tillim in
Galatin. l. 12. c. 6.

28. Geneva Study BibleIn my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, {a} I would have
told you. I go to {b} prepare a place for you.
(a) That is, if it were not as I am telling you, that is, unless there was room enough not only for
me, but also for you in my Father's house, I would not deceive you in this way with a vain hope,
but I would have plainly told you so.
(b) This whole speech is an allegory, by which the Lord comforts his own, declaring to them his
departure into heaven; and he departs not to reign there alone, but to go before and prepare a
place for them.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/john/14-2.htm"John 14:2-3 serve to arouse the
πιστεύειν demanded in John 14:1, to which a prospect so blessed lies open. In the house of my
Father are many places of sojourn, many shall find their abiding-place (μονή only here and in
John 14:23 in the N. T.; frequent in the classics, comp. also 1Ma 7:38), so that such therefore is
not wanting to you also; but if this were not the case I would have told you (“ademissem vobis
spem inanem,” Grotius). After εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν a full stop must be placed, and with ὅτι (see critical
notes) πορεύομαι a new sentence begins. So, first Valla, then Beza, Calvin, Casaubon, Aretius,
Grotius, Jansen, and many others, including Kuinoel, Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, B. Crusius, De
Wette,[140] Maier, Hengstenberg, Godet, Lachmann, Tischendorf. But the Fathers of the church,
Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Wolf, Maldonatus, Bengel, and many others, including Hofmann,
Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 464, and Ebrard, refer εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν to what follows: if it were not so, then I
would have said to you: I go, etc. Against this John 14:3 is decisive, according to which Jesus
actually says that He is going away, and is preparing a place.[141] Others take it as a question,
where, however, we are not, on account of the aorist εἶπον, to explain: would I indeed say to you:
I go, etc. (Mosheim, Ernesti, Beck in the Stud. u. Krit. 1831, p. 130 ff.)? but: would I indeed
have said to you, etc.? In this way there would neither be intended an earlier saying not
preserved in the Gospel (Ewald),[142] possibly with the stamp of a gloss on it (Weizsäcker), or a
reference to the earlier sayings regarding the passage into the heavenly world (Lange). But for
the latter explanation the saying in the present passage is too definite and peculiar; while the
former amounts simply to an hypothesis which is neither necessary nor capable of support on
other grounds.
The ΟἸΚΊΑ ΤΟῦ ΠΑΤΡΌς is not heaven generally, but the peculiar dwelling-place of the divine
δόξα in heaven, the place of His glorious throne (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 33:13-14; Isaiah 63:15, et
al.), viewed, after the analogy of the temple in Jerusalem, this earthly οἶκος τοῦ πατρός (John
2:16), as a heavenly sanctuary (Isaiah 57:15). Comp. Hebrews 9
ΠΟΛΛΑΊ] ἹΚΑΝΑῚ ΔΈΞΑΣΘΑΙ ΚΑῚ ὙΜᾶς, Euth. Zigabenus. The conception of different
degrees of blessedness (Augustine and several others) lies entirely remote from the meaning
here; for many the house of God is destined and established, and that already ἀπὸ καταβολῆς
κόσμου, Matthew 25:34.
ὍΤΙ ΠΟΡΕΎΟΜΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ.] for I go, etc., assigns the reason of the assurance: ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ …
πολλαί εἰσιν, so that ΕἸ ΔῈ ΜῊ, ΕἾΠΟΝ ἊΝ ὙΜῖΝ is to be regarded as logically inserted. The
ΠΟΡΕΎΟΜΑΙ ἙΤΟΙΜΆΣΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ., however, is an actual proof of the existence of the
ΜΟΝΑῚ ΠΟΛΛΑΊ in the heavenly house of God (not of the ΕἾΠΟΝ ἊΝ ὙΜῖΝ, as Luthardt